1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and a device for operating a circuit arrangement having a plurality of switching elements assigned on the output side to at least one predefined common load, each being designed to make available, as a function of a switched position, a user signal at an output of the switching element of the at least one common load.
2. Related Art
Such switching elements are, for example, smart switching elements. Smart switching elements are short-circuit-protected switching elements having at least one switch and a monitoring unit assigned to the at least one switch, said switching elements switching off the switch by thermal monitoring when an overload current is conducted. These smart switching elements comprise at least one sensing output. A sensor signal, which is embodied, for example, as a sensor current, can be operated by the sensing output. The sensor signal is essentially representative of a current through the switch assigned to it. The sensor signal is preferably smaller than the load current through the switch represented by it by a predefined factor, for example 1000.
An object on which the invention is based is to specify a method and a device for operating a circuit arrangement which are certain and reliable.